Timely  Topics  Series  No.  9 


■  '  ifieoi 

The  Facts  and  Fallacies 
of  Modern  Spiritism 


BY 


J.  Godfrey  Raupert,  K.  S.  G.  ^ 


Published  by  Central  Bureau  of  the  Central  Society 
201  Temple  Bldg.,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 
1920 


I 


/ 


NIHIIy  OBSTAT 
St.  Louis,  March  20  1920, 

F.  G.  HOLWECK, 

Censor 


IMPRIMATUR 
St,  Louis,  March  22,  1920 

Joannes  Josephus 

Archieppus  Sti.  Ludovici 


<T»*otsi|n?JcouweiL> 


51 


Sept.  5,  1920— 2500— 5C00 


The  Facts  and  Fallacies  of  Modern  Spiritism, 


Is  Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle  in  Communication  with  the  Spirits 

of  the  Dead? 


By  J.  Godfrey  Ranpert,  K.S.G. 


The  following  treatise  on  Spiritism  is  from  the  pen  of  Sir  J.  God- 
frey Raupert,  K.S.G. .  of  England,  now  so-journing  in  this  country. 
The  author  is  an  acknowledged  authority  on  this  subject,  having  con- 
ducted researches  in  this  particular  held  for  a  number  of  years ;  his 
authority  is  readily  evidenced  by  his  books,  some  of  which  are : 
"Modern  Spiritism/'  "'The  Dangers  of  Spiritualism,"  ''Spiritistic 
Phenomena  and  their  Interpretation.''  Mr.  Raupert's  work  as  a  writer 
and  lecturer  has  received  the  recognition  of  Rome.  "With  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  Holy  See,  says  the  British  Catholic  Who's  Who  (1918), 
"Mr.  Raupert  has  given  courses  of  lectures  on  the  modern  psychical 
and  occult  movement  of  thought  at  Seminaries  and  Catholic  institu- 
tions in  various  parts  of  the  world."  And  only  a  little  more  than  a 
year  ago  the  Papal  Secretary  of  State,  Cardinal  Gasparri,  conveyed 
the  blessing  and  encouragement  of  the  Holv  Father  to  the  author  in 
a  letter  dated  Oct.  31,  1918. 

In  this  letter  —  which  emphasizes  the  timely  character  of  an 
educational  campaign  regarding  the  danger  of  Spiritism — the  Papal 
Secretary  says Indeed,  among  the  evils  which  at  the  present 
time  are  causing  havoc  to  humanity,  we  may  number  those  occult 
practices  of  Spiritism,  .which,  if  permitted  to  spread  unchecked, 
threaten  to  inflict  on  countless  persons  the  loss  of  body  and  soul. 

"Therefore  His  Holiness  can  but  esteem  worthy  of  praise  and  of 
real  benefit  to  humanity  the  work  that  is  accomplished  either  by  word 
or  by  writing,  in  order  to  save  men  from  the  meshes  of  such  intricate 
and  perilous  practice  His  Holiness  encourages  your  whole- 
hearted zeal.  .  . 

The  treatise  is  particularly  timely,  since  after  practically  every 
war  a  sort  of  religious  revival  takes  place,  the  faithful  seeking  con- 
solation and  shelter  in  their  faith,  while  those  who  have  not  true  faith 
turn  to  various  forms  of  superstition.  This  contention  is  being  borne 
out  by  the  prominence  given  to  "communion  with  the  dead"  by  such 
men  as  Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle  and  Sir  Oliver  Lodge.  It  was  in  view  of 
the  emphasis  laid  on  Spiritism*  at  this  after-war  moment  that  the 
Central  Bureau  of  the  Central  Society  requested  Mr.  Raupert  to  pre- 
pare these  articles.  The  Publishers. 


—  4  — 


I  know  of  nothing  in  our  modern  literature  which  so  forcibly  and 
clearly  reflects  and  illustrates  the  Zeitgeist  as  the  recent  statements 
and  articles  by  Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle, 

The  age  in  which  we  live  is,  as  all  thinking  men  know,  increas- 
ingly departing  from  belief  in  the  Supernatural  as  revealed  in  the 
Gospels  and  the  traditions  of  Historical  Christianity,  and  is  relaps- 
ing into  paganism,  even  though  this  paganism  hides  itself  behind  at- 
tractive and  ''scientific"  and  even  academic  terms.  But  the  human 
heart  cannot  altogether  exist  without  some  contact  with  that  unseen 
world  which  it  knows  to  exist  and  with  which  it  feels  itself  to  be  re- 
lated. As  a  consequence  a  very  distinct  blank  is  created  which  causes 
the  distressed  mind  to  cast  about  for  some  kind  cf  substitute  which 
is  calculated  to  fill  this  blank  and  to  satisfy  its  cravings.  Spiritism, 
in  its  modern  scientific  form  is,  beyond  doubt,  the  most  attractive  and 
acceptable  substitute  for  this  lost  Supernatural  that  could  be  pre- 
sented. It  satisfies,  or  claims  to  satisfy,  longings  which  all  men  ex- 
perience more  or  less,  and  which,  in  a  sense,  constitute  the  very  basis 
and  conditions  of  any  kind  of  religious  life  and  belief.  One  can  there- 
fore fully  understand  how^  it  comes  to  pass  .that  statements  such  as 
those  of.  Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle  and  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  are  creating  a 
world-wide  .attention  and  why  the  interest  in  the  subject  is  such  a 
keen  and  widespread  one. 

K'Ow  it  is  not  proposed  in  these  articles  to  raise  the  question  as  to 
the  reality  and  objectivity  of  the  phenomena  themselves.  They  have 
been  under  the  observation  of  experts — in  many  instances  men  of  a 
pronouncedly  skeptical  turn  of  mind — for  a  long  series  of  years  and-, 
for  all  practical  purposes,  the  final  verdict  has  been  given.  It  is  ab- 
solutely certain  today  that,  under  given  conditions,  abnormal  phenom- 
ena occur  and  that  these  phenomena  are  due  to  some  kind  of  intelli- 
gence independent  of  and  apart  from  the  experimenter.  The  man 
who'  doubts  this  today  is  simply  ignorant  of  the  facts  of  the  case, 
and  unacquainted  with  the  evidence  which  exists.  The  basal  claims 
of  Spiritism  therefore  are  fully  admitted.  The  Catholic  Church  has 
never  doubted  them  and  indeed  has  maintained  their  reality  when 
modern  science  w^as  still  wrapt  in  its  materialistic  slumbers  and 
vehemently  denied  the  existence  of  a  spiritual  w'orld  and  spiritual 
beings.  What  we  are  concerned  with  is  the  interpretation  of  these 
phenomena  and  the  nature,  character,  and  aim  of  the  spirit-beings 
who  are  the  causes  of  their  production.  It  is  here,  the  Church  con- 
tends, where  modern  science  is  as  utterly  astray  as  it  has  admittedly 
been  astray  in  its  hitherto  interpretations  of  the  observed  phenomena 
of  matter.  It  is  setting  up  hypotheses  which  .the  facts  of  the  case  do 
not  warrant,  and  it  is  erecting  a  system  of  religioit;;  thought  upon 
contentions  which  are  mere  fallacies. 


The  first  of  these  fallacies  is  that  science  has  discovered  some- 
thing new  and  wonderful  and  of  deep  importance  to  human  nature. 
No  more  ridiculous  and  wholly  groundless  claim  has  ever  been  made. 
The  practice  of  necromancy — the  invoking  and  consulting  of  what 
were  believed  to  be  the  spirits  of  the  dead — is  as  old  as  the  v/orld. 
Traces  of  this  practice  can  be  found  in  the  history  of  all  races  and 
nations  and  it  may  indeed  be  regarded  as  the  distinguishing  charac- 
teristic of  the  pagan  civilizations.  The  Jews  no  doubt  had  become 
familiar  with  this  practice  during  their  captivity  and  in  their  contact 
w^ith  the  Babylonians  and  had  introduced  it  amongst  their  own  people. 
But  the  Jewish  rulers  and  law-givers,  so  far  from  regarding  these 
practices  as  of  any  solid  value  to  the  religious  and  social  life  of  the 
people,  had  always  emphatically  condemned  them  and  Jiad  enacted 
severe  laws  and  penalties  against  them.  A  witch,  whom  we  would  today 
call  a  medium,  was  not  allowed  to  live,  and  no  true  son  of  the  people 
was  permitted  "to  seek  the  truth  from  the  dead."  This  fact  is  be- 
yond doubt  to  be  ascribed  to  the  circumstance  that,  as  Sir  William 
Barrett,  a  confirmed  spiritist,  points  out,  all  these  practices  ''tended  to 
obscure  the  divine  idea,  and  to  weaken  the  supreme  faith  in  and  wor- 
ship of  the  One  Omnipotent  Being,  whom  the  nation  was  set  apart 
to  pioclaim.  Instead  of  the  arm  of  the  Lord  beyond  and  above  them, 
a  motley  crowd  of  pious,  lying,  vain  or  gibbering  spirits  would  seem 
to  people  the  unseen ;  and  weariness,  perplexity,  and  finally  despair 
would  enervate  and  destroy  the  nation."  Many  e:}^perienced  but  dis- 
illusioned spiritists  of  all  times  and  nations  have  emphatically  con- 
firmed the  wisdom  and  reasonableness  of  this  attitude  of  mind  and 
have  supported  it  by  serious  and  incontrovertible  facts. 

Our  own  age  furnishes  us  with  an  endless  variety  of  striking 
incidents  and  experiences  which  impel  the  cautious  student  of  the 
subject  to  an  identical  conclusion.  All  such  incidents,  unfortunately, 
are  calmly  brushed  aside  by  our  scientific  spiritists,  simply  because 
they  are  seen  to  run  counter  to  a  belief  which  they  are  determined  to 
embrace  and  from  which  they  hope  so  much  for  the  good  of  distracted 
mankind. 

But  they  should  at  least  command  the  serious  attention  of  all 
conscientious  and  right-minded  persons  and  lead  them  to  pause  and 
reflect  ere  they  embark  on  practices  and  adopt  beliefs,  fascinating  and 
plausible  no  doubt,  but  fraught  nevertheless  with  perils  to  both  body 
and  soul. 

It  will  be  shown  in  these  articles  in  what  these  perils  mainly  con- 
sist and  what  are  the  fallacies  underlying  Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle's  con- 
tention. 

11. 

The  second  fallacy  contained  in  Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle's  argument 
is  his  assumption  that  the  spirits  of  the  seance  room  are  the  spirits 
of  the  dead  who  have  proved  their  identity.  To  the  student,  unac- 
quainted with  the  intricacies  of  the  subject,  the  evidence  presented 
in  support  of  this  claim  will  seem  strong ;  but  it  is  nevertheless  utterly 
worthless  and  proves  nothing  of  the  kind.    It  falls  to  the  ground  en- 


tirely  when  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  we  have  cases  on  record  in  which 
similar  striking  evidence  of  identity  was  given  but  in  which  the  spirit, 
caught  in  a  falsehood,  finally  confessed  that  he  was  not  what  he  had 
claimed  to  be. 

A  single  instance  of  this  kind  shows  how  complex  the  problem  is 
and  what  sources  of  information  must  be  at  the  disposal  of  these 
spirits — how  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  it  is  to  prove  their  identity. 
AH  experienced  spiritists  are  fully  alive  to  this  immense  difficulty  and 
have  striven  by  various  devices  to  overcome  it ;  but  so  far  they  have 
not  been  successful.  The  question  of  identity  is  still  the  bitter  cross 
of  -psychical  research,  and  Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle  must  be  aware  of  it. 
It  is  his  "will  to  believe"  which  causes  him  to  pass  over  it  so  lightly. 
It  is  wonderful  how  this  "will  to  believe"  blinds  the  mind  and  perverts 
the  judgment.  Although  it  is  well  known  and  admitted  that  the  spirits 
habitually  impersonate  the  living,  each  individual  experimenter  tries 
to  persuade  himself  that  his  particular  spirits  are  doing  nothing  of 
the  kind.  It  is  often  only  after  many  months  and  even  years  that 
the  deception  is  discovered  and  that  the  disillusionment  comes.  In 
one  of  his  works  the  late  Mr.  Stainton-Moses,  for  many  years  the 
leader  of  the  English  spiritists  and  a  highly  educated  man,  admitted 
that  "all  the  information  ever  given  him  in  proof  of  the  presence  of 
the  departed  might,  in  harmony  with  his  experience  of  the  Spirits, 
have  been  first  obtained  and  then  imparted  by  a  false  intelligence." 
Prof.  L.  P.  Jacks  of  Oxford,  President  of  the  British  Psychical  Re- 
search Society  in  1917  and  personally  a  high  authority  on  the  sub- 
ject, made  this  statement  in  his  presidential  address :  "Take  the 
question  of  imposture.  Mediums  are  not  the  only  impostors.  Ho\V 
about  the  communicators?  Are  they  masquerading?  You  can  have 
no  absolute  proof  that  there  is  no  imposture  on  the  other  side.  I 
think  that  the  whole  meaning  of  personal  identity  needs  to.be  x&vy 
carefully  thought  out  and  considered  before  we  begin  to  produce  evi- 
dence in  favor  of  personal  identity."  I  had  myself  a  striking  experi- 
ence of  this  kind  of  spirit-impersonation  many  years  ago.  ^A  spirit, 
claiming  to  be  a  departed  personal  friend  of  mine  and  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  that  individual's  life-history,  was,  after  many  months, 
discovered  in  a  falsehood  and  then  freely  and  boastingly  admitted  that 
he  had  managed  to  trick  us  so  successfully  by  drawing  the  information 
required  from  our  own  sub-conscious  memories. 

Indeed,  the  evidence  available  today  fully  demonstrates  the  fact 
that  the  main  sources  of  information  of  these  spirits  are  the  sub- 
conscious minds  of  the  living,  although  it  cannot  be  claimed  that  these 
are  their  only  sources  of  information.  They  have  probably  access  to 
knowledge  by  methods  wholly  unknown  to  us  and  quite  beyond  our 
power  of  imagination.  I  have  dwelt  w^ith  this  aspect  of  the  subject 
very  fully  in  some  of  my  books.  The  circumstance  that  Sir  A.  Conan 
Doyle  regards  the  presentation  of  intimate  knowledge  respecting  some 
deceased  personality  as  evidence  of  identity  goes  to  prove  how  very 
imperfectly  acquainted  he  is  with  the  subject.  The  cases  he  cites  in 
his  articles  are  too  briefly  stated  to  admit  of  a  critical  examination 
and  judgment;  but  I  am  convinced  that  they  all  find  an  adeauate  ex- 


—  7  — 


planation  in  the  activities  of  his  own  subconscious  mind  and  in  the 
sources  of  information  at  the  disposal  of  these  astute  beings.  I  am 
persuaded  that  no  informed  and  unbiased  student  of  ijie  subject  would 
today  regard  any  one  of  them  as  furnishing  proof  of  identity.  What 
has  probably  impressed  the  reader  of  his  articles  most  of  all  is  the 
evidence  supposed  to  be  furnished  by  photography.  "In  two  cases," 
he  tells  us,  "the  figures  of  the  deceased  lads  have  appeared  beside  the 
mothers  in  a  photograph."  But  this  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  weakest 
and  most  worthless  evidence  of  all.  Their  figures  are  not  the  indi- 
viduals they  claim  to  be  but  mind-images  taken  from  the  memories 
of  the  living  and  exteriorized  and  clothed  with  subtle  matter  by  the 
spirit-intelligences. 

This  is  amply  proved  by  the  striking  evidence  which  is  available. 
Some  years  ago  the  deceased  British  Cardinals  were  very  much  in 
evidence  in  English  seance-rooms.  The  late  Cardinal  Newman  espe- 
cially was  believed  to  appear  regularly  at  a  house  well  known  to  me. 
I  was  several  times  present  at  his  materialization  and  have  seen  many 
post  mortem  photographs  of  him.  But  I  found  that  they  all  differed 
very  considerably  and  that  this  difference  could  be  traced  back  to  the 
image  of  the  late  Cardinal  which  the  individual  observer  had  in  his 
mind,  or  to  a  published  photograph  of  him  which  he  had  seen.  They 
could  not  therefore  be  presentations  of  the  Cardinal  as  he  exists  now 
in  the  other  life  and  in  his  "spirit  body."  We  have  furthermore  photo- 
graphs in  which  the  materialized  spirit  is  presented  at  various  ages — 
in  one  case  as  a  child  or  youth,  in  another  as  a  grown  up  person,  the 
presentation  evidently  corresponding  with  the  peculiar  mind-image 
which  the  experimenter  had  of  the  deceased.  I  have  in  my  possession 
a  photograph  obtained  in  a  city  which  I  had  never  visited  before  and 
in  which  there  appears  by  my  side  a  fairly  good, picture  of  a  deceased 
member  of  my  family,  but  alas,  for  Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle  and  his 
theories!  there  is  on  the  same  photograph  also  the  image  of  a  person 
w^ell  known  to  me  who  is  still  living^  but  not  as  she  is  now — an  el- 
derly lady — but  as  I  knew  her  years  ago,  and  as  I  best  remember  her 
• — a  young  married  woman.  Proof  positive  this,  surely !  that  these 
images  are  not  photographs  of  the  living  dead,  but  .materialized 
phantasms  taken  from  the  subconscious  memories  of  relatives'  and 
friends.  The  masquerading  spirits  clearly  cannot  always  distinguish 
the  phantasms  of  the  living  from  those  of  the  dead,  and  it  is  here 
where  the  critical  investigator  gets  on  the  track  of  the  deception. 

Space  does  not  permit  me  to  carry  the  argument  any  further ; 
but  sufficient  has  been  said  to  show  that  Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle's  evi- 
dence in  favor  of  the  identity  of  the  communicating  spirits  is  utterly 
worthless,  and  that  his  prodigious  claim  harbors  a  fundamental  and 
fatal  fallacy. 

ill. 

The  third  fallacy  contained  in  Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle's  reasoning 
is  his  confident  assertion  that  spirit-intercourse,  by  means  of  medium- 
ship,  will  prove  of  immense  benefit  to  mankind,  especially  at  a  time  of 
exceptional  distress  such  as  the  present.    This  note  of  confidence 


—  8  — 


pervades  all  his  recent  writings.  He  speaks  of  "miracles  in  the 
form  of  psychic  phenom.ena  happening  every  day"  and  of  the  "tidings 
of  great  joy"  \yhich  they  are  proving  to  many.  These  statements 
will  no  doubt  lead  many  a  reader  to  conclude  that  these  phenomena 
are  dropping  down  from  heaven  as  gifts  from  God  upon  a  distracted 
world  and  at  a  time  of  its  bitter  need.  But  a  greater  misconception 
of  the  real  facts  of  the  case  cannot  be  imagined.  The  phenomena 
spoken  of  never  occur  spontaneously,  but  they  are  invited  and  invoked 
and,  for  their  occurrence,  the  initiative  has  to  be  taken  on  the  human 
side — by  means  of  the  entranced  medium,  the  passive  mind,  the  circle 
properly  consti|;uted,  etc.  They  have,  therefore,  nothing  whatever  in 
common  with  the  miracles  recorded  in  the  Gospels.  And  there  are 
high  scientific  authorities  who  are  not  at  all  convinced  that  the  beings 
responding  to  these  invitations  are  at  any  time  the  spirits  of  the  dead. 

But  I  will  assume,  for  argument's  sake,  that  this  is  really  the 
case — that  occasionally  at  least  the  spirits  of  departed  human  beings 
manifest  by  these  means.  We  are  then,  however,  inevitably  forced 
to  the  o  mclusion  that  they  must  be  spirits  of  the  lowest  and  most 
debased  order — cheats  and  liars  and  hypocrites,  from  contact  with 
whom  every  right-minded  man  should  abstain.  Readers  of  the  pre- 
ceding chapter  will  have  seen  that  it  is,  under  the  most  favorable  con- 
ditions, mipossible  to  be  certain  of  the  identity  of  the  communicators 
and  that,  in  countless  instances,  endless  misery,  disappointment  and 
disillusionment  await  the  enquirer.  Experienced  spiritists  tell  us  that 
"even  where  the  most  convincing  proofs  have  been  given  we  must 
be  cautious."  "I  gained  the  distinct  impression,"  writes  Dr.  Here- 
ward  Carrington,  a  purely  scientific  investigator,  "that  instead  of  the 
spirits  of  the  personages  who  claimed  to  be  present,  I  was  dealing 
with  an  excieedingly^  sly,  cunning,  tricky  and  deceitful  intelligence 
which  threw  out  chance  remarks,  fishing  guesses,  and  shrewd  infer- 
ences, leaving  the  sitter  to  pick  them  up  and  elaborate  them  if  he 
would.  If  any  thing  could  make  me  believe  in  the  doctrine  of  evil 
and  lying  spirits  it  would  be  the  sittings  with  Mrs.  Piper." 

But  apart  from  the  question  as  to  the  real  nature  of  these  spirits, 
around  which  a  fierce  controversy  will  beyond  doubt  be  turning 
shortly,  I  maintain  that  no  departed  human  being  who  has  preserved 
his  moral  and  intellectual  integrity  in  the  other  world  would  adopt 
means  so  disastrous  to  the  living  as  modern  mediumship  is  known  to 
be — purely  for  the  purpose  of  conveying  the  most  trivial  messages 
to  surviving  friends.  It  is  here  where  the  real  difficulty  lies  and 
where  deluded  scientists  are  most  certainly  not  telling  the  whole  truth 
to  the  public.  For  what  are  the  actual  facts  of  the  case?  I  will, 
lest  I  be  suspected  of  religious  bias,  let  experienced  and  well-known 
authorities  speak.  Respecting  the  physical  effects  of  the  practice  of 
mediumship  Sir  Wm.  Crookes  writes  •  "After  witnessing;-  the  painful 
state  of  nervous  and  bodily  prostration  in  which  some  of  these  experi- 
ments have  left  Mr.  Home — after  seeing  him  lying  in  almost  faint- 
ing condition  on  the  floor,  pale  and  speechless, — I  could  scarcely 
doubt  that  the  evolution  of  psychic  force  is  accompanied  by  a  corre- 
sponding drain  on  vital  force."  .  Mr.  Stainton-Moses,  claimed  by  the 


spiritists  all  over  the  world  as  the  highest  authority  on  the  subject, 
wrote  of  himself  as  follows :  "The  hand  tingled  and  the  arm  throbbed 
and  I  was  conscious  of  waves  of  force  surging  through  me.  When 
the  message  was  done  /  was  prostrate  with  exhaustion  and  suffered 
from  a  violent  headache  at  the  base  of  the  brain."  Dr.  Von  Schrenck- 
Notzing,  a  scientific  experimenter  of  recent  date,  tells  us  that  ''as 
a  rule  it  took  the  medium  two  days  to  recover  from  the  nervous  pros- 
tration resulting  from- these  sittings."  And  Sir  Wm.  Barrett  assures 
us  repeatedly  that  he  has  observed  ''the  steady  downward  course  of 
all  mediums  who  sit  regularly."  I  need  not  say  that  my  long  and 
many-sided  acquaintance  with  the  subject  and  the  reports  I  am  con- 
stantly receiving  from  shipwrecked  experimenters  confirm  the  literal 
truth  of  these  statements. 

Respecting  the  moral  effects  of  these  spirit-communications  the 
half  has  never  yet  been  told.  I  mean  to  tell  the  whole  of  it.  however, 
before  I  have  done  with  the  subject.  I  w'lW  here  but  quote  the  state- 
ment of  one  disillusioned  spiritist:  "The  subject,  strange  to  say,"  he 
writes,  "seemed  to  have  the  power  of  introducing  discord  in  every 
family  in  which  it  entered,  of  arraying  husband  against  wife  in  the 
divorce  court,  and  of  producing  all  manner  of  domestic  infelicity  and 
sexual  irregularities.  This  is  rather  a  strange  result  of  the  beUet  that 
we  are  surrounded  by  the  spirits  of  our  loved  dead,  who  see  all  we 
do!"  ■ 

But  Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle  speaks  of  automatic  writing  as  "per- 
haps the  most  satisfactory  means  of  communication."  He  must  know 
something  of  the  dangers  attending  it  because  he  tells  his  readers, 
in  a  vague  sort  of  way,  that  this  kind  of  thing  "can  be  overdone." 
The  well-established  fact,  of  course,  is  that  this  apparently  harmless 
form  of  communication  is  the  most  dangerous  one  of  all.  For  while 
this  writing,  in  its  various  forms,  can  be  readily  induced  and  progres- 
sively developed,  it  cannot  he  so  easily  shut  off.  In  most  instances 
the  experimenter  ultimately  becomes  the  victim  of  the  power  which 
he  has  called  into  operation,  that  power,  by  the  incessant  and  madden- 
ing prompting  itself  disclosing  itself  as  anything  but  a  kindly  relative 
or  friend. 

I  have  never  ceased  to  draw  attention  in  my  writings  to  this  peril 
and  I  have  invariably  illustrated  my  assertions  by  accounts  of  actual 
and  most  painful  occurrences.  I  will  here  let  an  authority  speak 
who  has  never  committed  himself  to  any  religious  belief  and  who 
writes  purely  as  a  scientific  man.  "I  know  this  progressive  develop- 
ment well,"  writes  Dr.  Carrington.  "I  have  so  many  different  ac- 
counts sent  me  from  different  sources  that  I  know  each  step  of  the 
process  perfectly.  First  slow  scrawls  and  scratches  obtained  with 
difficulty  and  only  after  long  waiting;  then  the  formation  of  defi- 
nite letters;  then  the  more  rapid  flow  of  the  hand-writing  with  intel- 
ligent connexion  ;  then  personal  remarks,  answers,  conversations,  lies, 
impertinence:  then  the  stage  in  which  it  seems  hardly  necessary  for 
the  subject  to  touch  the  board  at  all;  then  the  board  is  discarded 
altogether  and  a  pencil  is  substituted  in  its  place.  The  writing  now 
becomes  still  more  personal,  the  subject.    .    .    .    begins  to  be  domi- 


—  10  — 


nated  by  it.  Then,  if  the  subject  still  continues,  rapid — furiously 
rapid  writing  takes  place ;  the  desire  to  write  is  constantly  present ; 
pain  develops  at  the  base  of  the  brain ;  then  the  pencil  is  discarded 
and  writing  is  performed  with  any  object  which  is  handy — a  fork,  a 
paper  knife,  etc.,  or  with  the  fingers  in  the  air;  finally  the  subject 
seems  to  ''intuit"  the  words  before  they  are  written  out ;  this  becomes 
more  and  more  intense  until  distinct  auditory  hallucinations  result ; 
the  patient  listens  to  the  internal  voices  and  follows  and  believes  what 
they  say :  she  loses  sleep ;  insomnia  sets  in ;  a  strange  light  is  seen 
in  her  eyes;  all  sense  of  proportion  is  lost,  the  subject  is  completely 
wrapped  up  in  the  internal  voices  and  pays  but  little  attention  to  ex- 
ternal affairs ;  she  is  completely  dominated  or  obsessed  by  the  internal 
reverie ;  to  all  intents  and  purposes  she  has  become  insane."  .  .  . 
doubt  not  that  many  hundreds  of  persons  become  insane  every  year 
by  reason  of  these  experiments  with  the  planchette  board    .    .  ." 

In  view  of  such  a  statement  as  this  based  upon  wide  experience 
and  dictated  by  no  religious  pre-possession,  one  can  but  ask  this 
question  :  W'lW  any  sane  person  maintain  that  spirit-intercourse  by 
means  of  automatic  writing  or  of  any  other  form  of  mediumship  can 
ever  under  any  circumstances  be  conceived  to  prove  a  blessing  to 
mankind? 

IV. 

A  fourth  and  still  more  fatal  fallacy  contained  in  Sir  A.  Conan 
Doyle's  argument  is  his  absurd  contention  that  the  information  which 
is  now  being  obtained  from  the  spirit-world  will  necessitate  the  re- 
construction of  the  Christian  Religion.  ^ 

He  is,  of  course,  not  the  first  reconstructionist  of  whom  we  have 
heard.  Some  years  ago  Mr.  R.  J.  Campbell  of  the  "New  Theology" 
movement  attempted  a  similar  thing ;  but  we  know  today  how  hope- 
lessly that  movement  has  come  to  grief.  Like  all  these  text-mongers 
he  presented  to  the  world  interpretations  of  Holy  Writ  which  the 
context  could  not  possibly  bear  and  which  any  child  in  the  Sunday 
school  could  have  refuted.  Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle's  interpretations  are 
of  this  order.  Let  me  take  a  single  instance.  He  quotes  the  text 
from  the  Apocalypse:  "I  heard  a  voice  from  heaven  saying  to  me: 
Write:"  and  he  interprets  this  as  a  command  or  injunction  to  employ 
automatic  writing.  But  the  context  in  the  first  place  indicates  that 
it  is  not  some  discarnate  human  intelligence  that  gives  the  injuncion, 
but  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  secondly,  that  the  writer  is  not  to  wait 
for  what  may  come  through  his  pen,  but  is  told  what  to  write.  And 
what  he  is  to  write  is :  "Blessed  are  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord.'"'  It  is 
in  fact  the  enunciation  of  a  divine  truth  or  law  put  in  poetical  lan- 
guage, and  any  unbiased  reader  would  see  this  when  the  whole 
text  is  quoted.  It  must  be  clear  that  if  the  "New  Revelation"  is  to 
be  built  up  on  this  kind  of  juggling  with  texts  it  is  not  likely  to 
prove  a  very  great  success. 

But  it  is  evident  that  Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle's  reconstruction  of 
Christianity  is  really  a  destruction  of  it,  since  all  that  is  vital  in  and 
characteristic  of  it  is  eliminated  in  the  process.    I  will  here  but  take 


—  11  — 

a  single  dogma  of  Historical  Christianity  which  all  reasonable  men  will 
admit  to  be  fundamental.  Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle  tells  us  that  we  must 
"concentrate  more  upon  Christ's  life  and  much  less  upon  his  death, 
etc."  In  his  book  he  develops  this  thought  more  fully  and  tells  us 
that  since  there  never  was  a  fall  there  could  be  no  need  of  Atonement 
and  Redemption  and  that  "one  can  see  no  justice  in  vicarious  sacri- 
ce,  nor  in  the  God  who  could  be  placated  by  such  means."  Now 
what  is  this  but  "a  making  void  of  the  cross  of  Christ"  as  St.  Paul 
puts  it,  and  a  relapsing  into  paganism?  For  if  any  fact  is  clear  from 
history,  it  is  the  fact  that  the  doctrine  of  the  atoning  and  redeeming 
death  of  the  Son  of  God  is  a  fundamental  primitive  truth  of  Christian- 
ity. For  its  profession,  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  the  best 
and  noblest  of  men  and  women  of  all  races  and  nations  have  died, 
from  it  the  Saints  and  Martyrs  of  all  ages  have  drawn  their  highest 
inspiration  and  upon  it  our  entire  Christian  civilization  has  been  built 
up. 

It  is  just  this  doctrine,  pervading  the  whole  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  the  writings  of  the  Fathers  and  Doctors  of  the  Church 
from  the  earliest  times  which  is  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of 
the  Christian  Religion.  "The  Son  of  Man,"  declared  our  Lord,  "is 
not  come  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  his  life 
a  redemption  for  many."  "This  is  my  blood  of  the  New  Testament 
which  shall  he  shed  for  many  for  the  remission  of  sins." 

The  inference,  therefore,  clearly  is  that,  if  Sir  \.  Conan  Doyle  is 
right  and  his  spirits  are  to  be  believed,  the  Saints  and  ^Martyrs  have  be- 
lieved a  lie  and  have  died  in  vain.  And  God  looked  on  and  allowed  this 
thing  to  be  done,  knowing  all  the  while  that  some  centuries  later  the 
disillusionment  would  come!  Is  not  this  mode  of  reasoning  utterly 
self-destructive?  For  who  will  hereafter  believe  in  and  love  and 
honor  a  God  who  assented  to  such  a  deception,  who  allowed  a  new 
civilization,  involving  the  shedding  of  oceans  of  blood  and  of  tears,  - 
to  be  built  upon  a  falsehood — upon  a  misconception  which  could  so 
easily  have  been  avoided  or  been  put  right? 

And  how  comes  it  to  pass,  we  might  further  ask,  that  while  any 
soldier  boy,  translated  to  the  spirit-world,  discovers  this  fact  and  finds 
ways  and  means  of  communicating  it,  the  saints  and  great  religious 
teachers  of  mankind  have  never  found  it  possible  to  do  this — are 
allowing  their  disciples  and  followers  to  continue  propagating  what 
they  now  know  to  be  a  falsehood? 

Is  it  necessary  to  carr}^  the  argument  any  further?  Does  it 
not  refute  itself — hopelessly  and  utterly?  Does  not  that  other  strik- 
ing text  of  Holy  Scripture  which  Sir  A.-  Conan  Doyle  so  flagrantly 
distorts  in  his  book  disclose  to  us  the  real  source  of  his  "New  Revela- 
tion"? 

He  admits  there  that  we  have  to  deal  sometimes  "with  absolutely 
cold-blooded  lying  on  the  part  of  wicked  or  mischievous  intelligences." 
We  must  not,  therefore,  he  says,  believe  every  spirit,  but  "try  the 
spirits"  whether  they  be  of  God.  But  the  text  goes  on  to  say:  (1.^ 
St.  John  .IV,  1.  Prot.  Version)  "because  many  false  prophets  are  gone 
out  into  the  world.    Herebv  know  ve  the  Snirit  of  God:  Every 


—  12  — 


spirit  that  confesseth  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh  is  oi  God. 
And  every  spirit  that  confesseth  not  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in 
the  flesh  is  not  of  God;  and  this  is  that  spirit  of  anti-Christ,  whereof 
ye  have  heard  that  it  should  come ;  and  even  now  already  is  in  the 
world."  I  doubt  very  much  whether  Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle  would  have 
quoted  this  text  had  he  taken  the  trouble  to  look  it  up  in  the  New 
Testament. 

How  appropriate,  in  view  of  such  despicable  perversions  of  truth, 
is  the  solemn  warning  of  the  Apostle  St..  Paul :  (I.  S.  Tim.  VI,  20, 
Prot.  Version.)  "O  Timothy,  keep  that  which  is  committed  to  thy 
trust,  avoiding  profane  and  vain  babblings  and  oppositions  of  science 
falselv  so  called,  which  some  professing  have  erred  concerning  the 
faith.'' 

V. 

It  will  have  been  seen  from  the  brief  preceding  statements  that 
the  structure  upon  which  Sir  A.  Conrm  Doyle  and  his  co-workers  are 
seeking  to  build  up  their  "New  Revelation"  is  a  very  flimsy  one  and 
that  it  cannot  possibly  withstand  the  assaults  of  full  and  accurate  in- 
formation and  of  ordinary  common  sense.  Their  mode  of  pro- 
cedure is  not  an  unfamiliar  one.  True  science  gathers  together  all 
the  facts  respecting  any  particular  problem  that  are  available  and 
then  constructs  its  interpretations  and  theories  accordingly.  Pseud o 
science  starts  with  a  theor}'  and  fits  the  facts  into  it  as  best  it  can, 
entirely  discarding  and  ignoring  those  which  run  counter  to  it. 

Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle's  method  is  of  this  latter  order,  and  we  may 
rightly  say  that  just  as  Christian  Science  is  neither  Christian  nor 
Science,  so  the  ''New  Revelation"  is  neither  new  nor  revelation. 
It  is  an  ancient  error,  revived  and  presented  in  attractive  modern 
form,  and  it  has  its  origin  in  the  vivid  imagination  of  some  semi- 
pantheistic  and  very  imperfectly  informed  enthusiasts.  Its  danger 
to  true  Christianity  does  not  lie  in  its  force  and  reasonableness,  but 
in  the  state  of  the  public  mind,  which,  as  we  all  know,  is  but  too 
receptive  just  now  of  a  fascinating  form  of  thought  of  this  kind. 
We  can  scarcely  be  surprised  that  an  age  which  could  swallow  the 
Chri-itian  Science  nonsense  should  become  enthusiastic  over  the  "New 
Revpiation."  Strange  to  say  both  forms  of  thought,  while  widely 
diverging  in  other  respects,  are  of  one  mind  respecting  that  funda- 
mental truth  of  Christianity  upon  which  everything  turns.  Both 
deny  the  atoning  and  redemptive  power  of  suffering,  as  it  finds  its 
highest  and  fullest  expression  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Cross  of  Christ. 
Both  coolly  ignore  the  forceful  and  persistent  testimony  to  its  truth 
of  millions  of  the  best  and  noblest  of  mankind.  Both  present  to 
the  world  interpretations  of  Scripture,  which  are  manifest  perver- 
sions of  it.  And  as  the  founder  of  Christian  Science  too  dabbled  in 
Spiritism,  and  its  tenets  bear  a  remarkable  resemblance  to  the  eflfu- 
sions  obtained  by  automatic  writing,  it  is  more  than  probable  that 
both  systems  of  thought  emanate  from  the  same  source. 

We  may  be  confident,  therefore,  that  when  Christian  Science 
and  the  "New  Revelation"  shall  have  had  their  dav  and  men  shall 


—  13  — 


have  grown  weary  of  them,  the  root  error  which  they  embody  will  re- 
appear, dressed  up  in  some  other  attractive  form. 

The  limits  of  space  imposed  upon  me  here  have  necessitated  a 
very  inadequate  treatment  of  the  subject.  I  have,  however,  dealt 
with  it  very  fully  and  from  manv  different  points  of  view  in  a  new 
book  which  I  have  entitled :  THE  NEW  BLACK  MAGIC.  There 
are  but  two  other  points  on  which  I  can  brietiy  comment  here. 

Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle  asserts  that  "religion,  as  it  is  now  taught  in 
the  Churches,  has  failed.  .  .  .  because  it  is  not  believed."  And 
in  his  book  he  goes  on  to  say  that  "Christianity  .  .  .  has  deferred 
the  changes  (the  reconstruction)  very  long  until  her  churches  are 
half  empty,  women  her  chief  supporters,"  etc.,  etc. 

But  it  would  surely  be  more  correct  to  say  that  a  certain  kind  or 
brand  of  Christianity  has  failed.  And  it  is  that  kind,  as  all  the  world 
knows,  which  preaches  the  Christ  of  the  "New  Revelation"  and  of 
similar  modern  thought-movements.  And  the  Churches  which  are 
more  than  half  empty  are  those  which  have  become  mere  entertain- 
ment bureaus  and  cheap  variety  shows.  Who  would  dare  to  assert 
this  of  the  buildings  of  the  Catholic  Church,  in  which  the  true  His- 
toric Christ,  the  divine  Saviour  of  the  world,  is  preached  and  in 
which  His  valid  Sacraments  are  administered?  And  who  does  not 
know  that  the  experiences  of  the  war  have  led  and  are  daily  leading, 
untold  numbers  of  iserious-minded  persons,  disgusted  with  these 
various  worthless  form  of  sham  Christianity,  to  seek  admission  to  her 
fold? 

'  No  more  palpable  and  obvious  falsehood  in  support  of  a  newly- 
coined  religion  has  probably  ever  been  uttered !  The  one  seemingly 
valid  objection  which  might  be  urged  against  the  attitude  of  the 
Catholic  Church  in  this  matter  is  that  it  is  a  fanatical  and  uncharit- 
able one,  and  that  it  robs  the  heart  of  a  consolation  of  which  it 
stands  in  such  sore  need  at  this  time  of  distress.  But  experience 
teaches,  as  I  have  shown,  that  no  true  and  permanent  consolation  can 
possibly  come  from  this  quarter,  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  disappoint- 
ment, mental  distress  and  disquietude,  and  ultimate  disillusionment 
await  the  enquirer.  And  the  Church,  which  has  been  longer  on 
the  scenes  than  any  one  of  these  innovators,  is  anxious  to  guard 
her  children  against  the  loss  of  faith  and  against  this  painful,  but 
inevitable  disillusionment.  She  cannot  put  her  seal  to  a  flagrant 
error  and  to  a  manifest  distortion  of  truth. 

But  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  she  stand?  alone  in  her  con- 
demnation of  Spiritism.  There  are  many  high  scientific  and  literary 
authorities  who,  though  not  Catholic,  warmly  approve  of  her  atti- 
tude— who  doubt  very  much  whether  the  spirits  of  the  seance-room 
are  at  any  time  the  spirits  of  the  dead. 

Mr.  Dale  Owen,  himself  ah  ardent  spiritist,  was  constrained  to 
write  years  ago :  "There  are  more  reasons  than  many  imagine  for 
the  opinion  entertained  by  some  able  men,  Protestants  as  well  as 
Catholics,  that  the  communications  in  question  come  from  the  powers 
of  darkness  and  that  we  are  entering  on  the  first  steps  of  a  career  of 


demoniac  manifestation,  the  issues  whereof  men  cannot  conjecture." 

A  ,nore  recent  experimenter,  Dr.  Van  Eeden,  a  Dutch  physician, 
intimatel>  acquainted  with  the  subject,  wrote  the  following:  **ln 
this  region  lie  risks  of  error  .  .  .  not  merely  scientific  and  intellec- 
tual, but  also  of  moral  error  .  .  .  And  it  is  this  which  seems, 
indeed,  to  justify  the  orthodox  religions  in  condemning  the  evocation 
of  spirits  as  immoral,  as  infringing  upon  secrets  hidden  from  man 
by  the  Eternal." 

But  T  have  already  exceeded  the  limits  of  space  allotted  to  me 
and  so  much  remains  to  be  said.  I  can  but  advise  those  who  have 
time  and  opportunity  to  study  the  larger  works  on  this  subject. 


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